Island



(-No Model.)

L. A. PEOK'HAM.

FEEDING MECHANISM FOR GARDING ENGINES.

No. 415,651. Patented Nov. 19, 18 89..

INK/@TUHI I $49K M/M mad lINiTnn STATES PATENT FFlQE.

LUTHER A. IECKIIAM, OF PROVIDENCE, RI-IODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-IIALF TO CHARLES FLETCHER, OF SAME PLACE.

FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CARDlNG-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 415,651, dated November19, 1889.

Application filed June 8, 1887. Serial No. 240,582. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that 1, LUTHER A. PECKHAM, of Providence,in the county ofProvidence and State of Rhode. Island, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Feeding Mechanism for Carding-Engines, of whichthe following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to mechanism for feeding fibrous matcrialforinstance, wool to carding or other engines for working the same.

There is in common use a feeding mechanism for carding engines for whicha patent was granted to IV. 0. Bramwell June 10, 187 9, No. 216,373, andto which reference is hereby made in connection with this specification.

In the Bramwell machine, as well as in many other feeding mechanisms,the wool rests against the inclined lifting-apron with merely its ownweight, and the wooltherefore is not held sufficiently well in contactwith the moving apron to insure a constant feed to the same. Moreover,the old constructions are objectionable intliat balling of the wool atthe foot of the apron often occurs.

The objects of my invention are to insure ,0 a positive and cbnstantfeeding of the wool to the lifting-apron and to prevent the balling ofthe wool.

Another object of my invention is to provide an alarm device which willbe thrown into operation and sounded when the wool becomes nearlyexhausted from the receptacle.

To the above purposes my invention consists, essentially, in the movablepresser-frame placed at the back of the receptacle and hinged by itsbase and capable of being tilted toward and away from the inclinedliftingapron so as to press the interposed wool into close contact withthe moving apron, in the means for moving the presser-frame, and in 5the alarm-bell, all constructed and arranged in the novel and peculiarmanner as pointed out in the claims at the close of this specification.

In order that my invention may be fully understood, I have illustratedit in the accompanying drawings and will proceed to describe the bestforms thereof, so far as devised by me, with the knowledge that the samemay be variously modified without, how ever, making a substantialdeparture from 5 5 the spirit of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of the receptacleor case into which the wool is placed, and from which it is raised bythe inclined or nearly-vertical 6o lifting-apron, which is shown inbroken lines. The back edge of the receptacle is broken away in order togive an edge view of my improved movable presser-frame, which is0perated by the attached devices, so as to move toward and away from thelifting-apron. The alarm-bell and its tap and the trip device are alsoshown in this View. Fig. 2 is a similar view to that shown in Fig. 1,with the presserframe moved to its inward limit and the opcratingdevices accordingly changed in their relative positions. Fig. 3 is anenlarged view of the sector-gear, the cam, and the toothed rack and thetrack, the case or receptacle and the track being shown in section. Fig.4 is an enlarged view of the bracket and reciprocating pin and thetilting lever upon which the bracket is mounted, the lever being shownin section. Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the slidingweight-carrier which trav- 8o els on the tilting lever. A set ofremovable weights is shown in section as placed on the carrier, and aportion of the link connected with the carrier, is also shown.

In the said drawings like numbers of reference designate correspondingparts th roughout.

Referring to the drawings, the number 7 designates the ordinary-case orreceptacle in which is located the endless lifting-apron 8, go which iskept in continual motion and extends across the iiiterior of thereceptacle, which is provided at the bottom with the grids 9. Inmachines having a fixed back, which is disposed in the position of mymova- 5 ble presser-frame 10, as shown in Fig. 1, the wool is kept incontact with the apron 8 merely by the weight of the wool itself, andthis contact is not sufficient to insure the wool being caughtby theapron, the result being that the apron does not lift the desired anduniform quantity of wool. hen the wool becomes low in the receptacle,instead of the apron catching and lifting it, as it should do, it ballsthe wool up and keeps rolling it about at the bottom of the receptacleand catches little or none of it. These defects are due to the wool notbeing pressed against the lifting-apron with the pressure necessary tocompel the apron to catch the same. I overcome these defects by virtueof the movable presscr-frame 10, which consists in abroad frame aboutthe width of the liftingapron and extending across the back of thereceptacle, so as to act as a movable back therefor. The presser-frameis hinged along the lower edge at 11, so that it may be rocked in an areon its hinge toward and away from the apron 8. To the foot of thepresserframe 10 is secured the tilting lever 12, the rise and fall ofwhich serves to move the connected presser-frame out and in. Theweight-carrier 13 is formed with a perforation 14:, through which thetilting lever 12 passes,

so that the carrier may slide to and fro on the lever. To the arm 15,proj ccting from the carrier, is pivoted the link 16, which is pivotedby its other end to the frame 7 at the point 17. From the top of theweight-carrier 13 extend two posts 18, which are designed to receive theflat removable weights 19, which are formed each with two eyes spacedsimi larly to the posts which pass through them. The weight-carrier 13acts as an over weight or balance and tends to depress the lever, so asto press the presser-frame 10 toward the lifting-apron. As the lever 12descends the weight-carrier is caused to move in along the same by meansof the connected link 16, thereby decreasing the let erage, andconsequently decreasing the force with which the frame 10 is moved in.By the use of the set of removable weights 19 the pressure of thepresser-frame upon the wool can be varied at will.

The tilting lever is controlled in its movements by means of thefollowing devices: The bracket 20 is attached to the lever 12 by thebolt 21, and the upper and lower ends are provided with sockets, throughwhich reciprocates the pin 22, to which is attached the chain 23, whichpasses over a sheave 24, secured at the end of the track 25, which isset upon the supports 26, which are bolted to the side of the case orreceptacle 7. The rack 27 is provided with teeth upon its upper side,and the rack is adapted to slide endwise in the groove 28, formed in theupper face of the track 25. The chain 23 is attached to one end of therack 27, and the to-and-fro movement of the rack will obviously vibratethe tilting lever 12. The rack is moved in the direction to raise theconnected lever 12 by means of the sector gear 29, which is ahalf-cogged gear provided with a hub having the sprockets or pins 30projecting therefrom, and this gear is journaled on the pin 31, set inthe side of the case 7. The sector-gear 29 is rotated in direction ofthe arrow by means of the chain 32, which passes about the hub of thegear and over the sprockets and receives its motion from the roll 33,which is one of the feed-apron rolls, as will be readily understood byreferring to the aforesaid patent. At each revolution of the sector-gearthe teeth thereof will pass in mesh with the toothed rack 27, therebysliding the same along the track and raising the tilting lever, to themovements of which latter the prcsser-frame will respond. The rack isprevented from immediately being run in the opposite direction when thesector-gear .is out of mesh therewith by the following construction: Bythe side of the rack is secured the inclined-plane-like cam 34,whichextends about the length of the rack and also slides with the rack onthe track 25. Upon the outer face of the sector-gear 29 is fixed acam-stud 35,which is arranged to engage the upper face of the cam 34after the sector-gear moves out of mesh with the rack. As the rotationof the sector-gear raises the cam-stud the cam 34: is permitted togradually slide under the same, while the stud is rotated from theposition in Fig. 1 into the position in Fig. 2, and in this, manner thetilting lever is lowered. It will now be readily seen that the rotationof the sector-gear having the cam-stud will effect the verticalvibration of the tilting lever, and thereby rock the presserframe 10.

The presser-frame 10 is designed to operate in such a manner that itcannot move to the inner limit, as shown in Fig. 2, until the wool isnearly exhausted from the receptacle. \Vhen this occurs, the receptacleshould be refilled with wool; and in order to know when refilling isnecessary I have provided an alarm-signal, which will be operated underthe aforesaid condition. The alarm-signal consists in a hell or gong 36,mounted upon the T-shaped extension 37 of the tilting lever 2, and abell-tap 38, also pivoted upon IIO the extension 37 and provided withthe spring 39, which is secured between the extension and the bell-tapand normally retracts the latter. This bell and its tap are so adjustedthat when the tilting lever has moved the Presser-frame into the innerlimit one end of the tap will be moved into the path of the trip-pins450, which are fixed upon the gearwheel 4L1,which may be driven from themain shaft, as shown in the above-referred-to patent. The tripping ofthe bell-tap by the pins on the gear 41 will ring the alarm-bell 36 whendesired.

From the foregoing description the operations of the mechanism will bereadily understood. The receptacle being filled with wool, the overweight or balance is adjusted by increasing or decreasing the value ofthe weights on the weight-carrier 13. At each revolution of thesector-gear 29 the rack and cam will move over the same distance, andaccordingly the connected reciprocating pin 22 will be reciprocated eachtime the same distance; but the tilting lever will not have thesamelimit of vibration,because the more stock or wool there is in thereceptacle the more resistance is offered to the inward movement of thepresser-frame 10. Accordingly the presser-frame will increase in theamplitude of its vibrations as the stock decreases in the receptacle.Though the pin 22 will have the same traverse at each revolution of thesector-gear, the tilting lever need notnecessarily have the sametraverse, but will be influenced by the amount of stock in thereceptacle. Then the wool gets low down in the receptacle, the rockingof the presserframe 10 against it will prevent the obj ectionableballing of the wool, so that the liftingapron will at all times beenabled to catch and lift a considerable quantity of the wool, therebyaffording a more perfect feed.

In Figs. 1 and 2 I have shown the electric alarm-bell 36 as controlledby the electric circuit 42, supplied with power by battery 43,

, and in which circuit is situated the circuitcloser 44, which isdesigned to be closed by the action of the movable presser-frame 10 whenthe latter moves into the inward position, owing to the depletion orexhaustion of the wool from the receptacle. In Fig. 1 the electricalalarm-bell 36 is thrown'into operation by means of the finger 45, fixedto the upper end of the tilting lever 12, so that when the back orpresser frame 10 moves inward to a certain point the finger 45 willserve to push upon the circuit-closer 44 and close the same, therebysounding the alarm. In Fig. 2 the electrical alarm-bell 36 is sounded bymeans of the upper end of the presser-frame 10 actuating thecircuit-closer 44, which is located within the receptable, whenever theframe moves inward to a given point.

3y virtue of the three several ways I lf'ave of sounding the alarm-bellby means of the movable back or frame 10, I am enabled to adjust thebell mechanism so that the alarm may be given when the wool will beatany predetermined height in the receptacle. Itis to be noted that onlyone alarm is to be used in a machine at the same time. The alarm may beused with advantage upon any of the feeding mechanisms wherein isemployed a movable back, which may be used to sound an alarm whendesired by means of the movable loack,as I have shown. Of course a set'of machines may be placed in circuit with a single alarm-bell. However,I prefer to use lever secured to the shaft forming the pivot for thepresser-frame, the sliding weight automatically adjustable 011 thelever, a reciprocating rack connected with the lever by a flexibleconnection, and a sector-gear constructed to impart oscillating motionto the vibrating presser-framc through the rack and lever, as described.

2. The combination, as hereinbefore set forth, with a movable1')1'esserfraine and a tilting lever for operating the same, of an overbalance or weight traveling on the lever and a link pivoted by itsrespective ends to a fixed point and to the traveling over weight orbalance, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

3. The combination, as hereinbefore set forth, with a movablepresser-frame and a tilting lever for moving the same, of a bell and abell-tap mounted on the tilting lever and acting to tap the bell whentripped, and a moving trip device adapted to trip the belltap when thelatter is moved into its path, substantially as and for the purposeherein described.

4. The combination, as hereinbeforc set forth, with a rockingpresser-frame, a tilting lever, and a bracket mounted thereon andprovided with a reciprocating pin, of a rotary sectorgear having drivingmeans therefor and provided with a cam-stud, a toothed rack for the gearand a cam for the cam-stud, and a track for said rack and cam to slideon, and a connection intermediate the rack and the reciprocating pin inthe bracket, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

5. The combination, as hereinbefore set forth, of the rockingpresser-frame and the tilting lever, the sliding toothed rack and camsecured together and provided with a track, a connection intermediatethe rack and the tilting lever, a rotary sector-gear having drivingmeans therefor and engaging the rack and moving the rack and cam in onedirection, and a cam-stud fixed upon the sectorgear acting to engage thecam and to allow the cam and rack to be moved gradually in the otherdirection by the weight of the connected tilting lever, substantially asand for the purpose herein described.

6. The combination, as hereinbefore set forth, with the rockingpresser-frame 10 and the tilting lever 12, of the weight-carrier 13,traveling thereon, and the link 16, pivoted by its respective ends tothe weight-carrier and to a fixed point, substantially as and for thpurpose herein described.

7. The combination, as hereinbefore set forth, with the rockingpresser-frame 10 and the tiltinglever 12, of the bracket 20, mountedupon the lever and provided with the reciprocating pin 22, the toothedrack 27, and the connected cam 34, provided with the track 25, and thechain 23, connecting the rack with the pin 22, the rotary sector-gear29, provided with the cam-stud 35, and means for driving the gear,substantially as and for the purtripping the bell-tap, substantially asand for pose herein described. the purpose herein described.

8. The combination, as hereinbefore set In witness whereof I havehereunto set my forth, with the movable presser-fraine 10 and hand. thetilting lever 12, for moving the same, of LUTHER A. PEOKHAM. the bell 36and the spring-actuated bell-tap Vitnesses:

38, pivoted upon the lever 12, and the rotary gear 41, provided with thetrip-pins 40, for

J. A. MILLER, J12, M. F. BLIGH.

